Four years after he blew into Houston to set the still-standing American record in the half marathon (59:43), Ryan Hall is back for the 2011 Aramco Houston Half Marathon with a new look, and a lot of other new things. For starters, he's sporting a scraggly beard that he'll shave before the Saturday morning start on the new 8-mile downtown loop course that will make up the 2012 Olympic marathon trials next Jan. 14.
The other changes are potentially more significant. He and his wife, Sara, have moved from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., to dual locations, Flagstaff, Ariz., and Palo Alto, Calif. In Flagstaff, they have a landlord who's become an unofficial coach–the legendary Jack Daniels, Ph.D., now living and coaching at Brevard College in North Carolina. Hall says he's not exactly self-coached but neither is he coached by Daniels or his father, Mickey, another principal sounding board. Rather, he's evaluating advice from a number of trusted sources.
One, unsurprisingly, is the Bible. Hall is taking a full day's rest from training once a week–something he says he hasn't done for a long time.
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